Daily Archives: July 3, 2011

July 2, 2011- With revolutions sweeping the Arab world and bubbling up across Europe, aging tyrants or discredited governments are doing their best to cling to power. It's hard to overexaggerate the importance of these events: the global political and economic status quo is in deep crisis. If pro-democracy or anti-austerity movements emerge victorious, they'll have an immediate problem to solve – how to pay for their vision of a better world. The experiences thus far in Egypt and Greece are proof enough that money matters. The wealthy nations holding the purse strings are still able to influence the unfolding of events from afar, subjecting humiliating conditions on those countries undergoing profound social change.

July 2, 2011- More than 10,000 concerned citizens have signed One Wisconsin Now's petition launched Monday calling for the resignation of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser. One Wisconsin Now started the petition after Justice Ann Walsh Bradley said Prosser put her in a "chokehold" during an argument over Prosser's effort to muscle through a court decision in favor of GOP Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, who endorsed Prosser's 2011 re-election campaign.

"The people of Wisconsin have sent a unified and unmistakable message: 'David Prosser has got to go,'" said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. "The people have rejected Prosser's abusive behavior and feel he can no longer represent them on the Wisconsin Supreme Court."

June 29, 2011- Opponents of Ohio Governor John Kasich’s push to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights—as part of a national push by newly elected Republican governors to silence opposition to their cuts in funding for public education and services — needed to collect 231,000 valid signatures to force a referendum that would override anti-labor legislation enacted by Kasich and his allies.

Now, well over one year later, we find out such a scenario did come to pass; a foreign subsidiary of an American multinational corporation contributed tens of thousands of dollars to American candidates and political organizations — as many as five years before the Supreme Court’s controversial decision. And the corporation involved is none other than Koch Industries.

The case relates to $26,800 in campaign contributions the company made to candidates, political committees, and political party committees from 2005 to 2009. The recipients of the contributions have since paid back the contributions except for the Democratic Governor's Association, which received a $15,000 contribution in 2007.

INVISTA's contributions were disclosed to the FEC after lawyers for Koch Industries discovered the illegal contributions and relayed the information to the FEC for review. The FEC quickly reached an agreement with INVISTA to recoup the contributions from the recipients and to pay the $4,700 administrative fine to the FEC.

July 2, 2011- A foreign subsidiary of Koch Industries has been fined $4,700 by the Federal Election Commission for making 12 illegal donations totaling $26,800 to seven non-federal committees over a four-year period.

Invista S.a.r.l., a Koch subsidiary which is registered in Luxembourg but headquartered in Wichita, Kan., came to the FEC voluntarily with information that it made the illegal donations during the years 2005 through 2009.

Under federal election law, foreign companies are barred from making donations to candidates or committees in federal, state or local elections.

According to an FEC settlement with Invista that was posted Friday, the contributions included six that were made in 2007 to state candidates, a state PAC and a party committee totaling $22,100. The others six were made in 2005, 2006 and 2009.

All the donations were made from Invista’s corporate funds, which were in U.S. banks but originated abroad, according to the FEC.